Thursday, June 26, 2014

Today is Derek Jeter‘s 40th birthday. I have not done a ton of research into the matter, but based on the columns and tributes I’ve seen coming out of New York, I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that Jeter is the first Major League Baseball player in history to turn 40-years-old. That’s a pretty great accomplishment and we should all talk about how classy and winning a strategy turning 40-years-old really is.

...But I kid, Derek. He knows I kid. To the extent he cares — and I seriously, seriously doubt he cares one iota — he knows that people like me who like to make jokes about The Captain are really reacting to the Jeter Industrial Complex which has venerated him to the extreme, not to The Captain himself. That, when we stop trying to be snarky and actually allow ourselves a genuine bit of reflection, we know that we have been really damn lucky to see Jeter play these past 20 years. That while one can assign value to him statistically, make judgments about him objectively or simply count the number of championship rings he has won, the more subjective stuff about him — his consistency, his durability, his star power and his dignity in a world where dignity is often hard to find — is something that even people who would love to see the Yankees lose more often than they win can and do appreciate. There are only a handful of careers like Jeter’s in all of baseball history, and people around our age have gotten to see the entire thing, from start to finish.

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Why in the name of god would anyone hyphenate "40 years old" when it's not modifying anything? I see that sort of thing with stats a lot, too, as in "He's averaging 20-points-per-game." Aaaaarrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhh.

When exactly did "40-years-old" become the standard? It seems like it exploded from "something some people here and there do that serious writers/editors universally regard as wrong" to "pretty much the way everyone writes it" in like 5 years' time. It seems to be one of those things that came up alongside the internet, but I can't understand why.

I work freelance doing editing and proofreading and this is one of the most common things I correct, correcting "40-years-old" or "40 years-old" to "40 years old" like it damn well ought to be--and what surprises me is that it's also one of the most common things writers want to argue with me about. They say "40 years old" 'just looks wrong'.

work freelance doing editing and proofreading and this is one of the most common things I correct,

You have my sympathy & admiration.

Also, y'know, if so many idiots get it wrong, the construction is often easily avoided. The main difference between "Derek Jeter turns 40" & "Derek Jeter turns 40 years old" is that the latter gives the writer a chance to demonstrate his ignorance of when & how to use hyphens. "Age 40" is just as viable in other types of sentences.